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Brexit Secretary David Davis has vowed to make "real progress" in negotiations over the future rights of European nationals living in the UK as talks resume in Brussels.

Ahead of the second round of formal talks on Brexit Mr Davis said "we made a good start last month" and this week will be about getting into "the substance of the matter".

Mr Davis said there are four categories to be discussed; the issue of citizens' rights; issue of fiance; separation issues and Northern Ireland.

"For us it's incredibly important we now make good progress. That we negotiate through this and identify the differences, so that we can deal with them, and identify the similarities so that we can move forward," said Mr Davis.

Last month the Government published what it said was a "fair and serious" offer to guarantee the future rights of the 3.2 million EU citizens living in the UK and the 1.2 million British ex-pats in the EU.

But the proposal to grant EU nationals "settled status", effectively indefinite leave to remain, was immediately dismissed by European Council President Donald Tusk as "below our expectations", and risked worsening their situation.

It was the first of a series of public spats following the first round of negotiations, which Mr Davis earlier said had got off to a "good start".

The European Commission's chief negotiator Michel Barnier retorted icily he could not hear any whistling, "just the clock ticking".

Mr Barnier has made clear that he is not prepared to start talks on a trade deal until there has been sufficient progress on the financial settlement.

Ministers also faced criticism at home over their plans to withdraw from the EU nuclear regulator, Euratom, amid warnings the UK find its access to radioactive isotopes used to treat cancer restricted.

All three issues will be on the agenda for this week's discussions, which are expected to continue to Thursday, along with the thorny matter of the future border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Mr Davis made clear that his first priority would be resolving the issue of citizens rights, saying he we was determined to make "real progress".

"We made a good start last month, and this week we'll be getting into the real substance," he said.

"Protecting the rights of all our citizens is the priority for me going into this round and I'm clear that it's something we must make real progress on."